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Pilot
Synopsis When a rapist proves rather too difficult to find for the FBI, Agent Eppes and Agent Lake utilize Agent Eppes' genius mathematician brother, Charlie, to triangulate the rapist's point of origin, and sift for his MO. Plot A woman, Rachel Abbot, is found murdered with a distinctive burn pattern on her neck. She is the 13th victim in a series of rapes, but the first murder victim. Agent Don Eppes leads the FBI team that is investigating the string of crimes. He has agent Terry Lake and rookie agent David Sinclair as his seconds. Don and Terry go to talk to the 12th victim, Karen Silber, due to inconsistencies in her report of the crime. Charlie Eppes, a mathematician at the California Institute of Science (CalSci for short), is seen going down a hill in an 'extreme gravity vehicle', or so he says to friend and colleague, Larry Fleinhardt, after being accused of going around in a go-cart. Larry is skeptical of its relevance to his own work. Charlie promises to help Larry the following Monday. Don stops at his childhood home to 'catch a shower and borrow a clean shirt' from his father, Alan Eppes. Charlie comes down as dinner is about the start when he sees a map that Don left on the dining room table pertaining to a case. Don gets angry and Charlie offers his mathematical expertise. Don doesn't think that he can help and brushes him off. By way of a lawn sprinkler example, Charlie explains how math can help his brother solve his case. Don is convinced enough to give Charlie's theory a chance. That night Don gives Charlie the variables needed to come up with an equation that could help them pinpoint where the suspect lives. The next morning Terry and Don talk about this new technique. Both are a little skeptical, but hope that it will work. David is behind on finding the 13th victim's car. Don isn't happy and questions David's priorities as he is also working on something for the Assistant Director. David does his best to calm Don, however, he opens the task up to he rest of the team to try to move things along. Charlie is working hard on his equation to come up with a location for the FBI to search. Amita Ramanujan, a grad student at CalSci, interrupts Charlie to remind him that it's Monday and that he's supposed to be helping Larry. Charlie catches up to Larry who was wondering if he had gotten the time, location, or dimension wrong. In the resulting conversation, Charlie gets a brainwave that helps him finish the equation that gives them the 'hot zone' of where the suspect is most likely to live - Sliver Lake. Amita and Charlie rush his findings to the FBI. Charlie explains how he got the outcome. Terry agrees on some level. Assistant Director Walt Merrick isn't sure about Charlie's area. Charlie says that it's no crazier than buying the lottery ticket that AD Merrick has in his pocket. David rushes into the room. They found the 13th victim's car. A build up of cigarette butts and cans are found near where her car was in the parkade. It turns out he was casing the home of Karen Silber. They hurry to her home to find her dead body. The story hits the news. Charlie's algorithm proves effective in four of five tests. They use the hot zone from this algorithm to find discarded objects of approximately 50 men that live in the area so they can match the DNA to what they found where Rachel Abbot's car was found. None of the 30-some-odd samples tested so far match the DNA A smoking man is seen watching a school teacher during the day. Amita and Charlie are huddled up at the dining room table double checking his math. Alan makes a comment about his girlfriend. He is corrected by Charlie. He is her thesis advisor. The math doesn't pan out and Charlie tells Don. He is annoyed because agents have been working in the hot zone for two days. Charlie blames the data that he was given. He is sure there was something missed. Don and Terry go to talk to a co-worker of Karen's to verify her statement. She lied about where she was so that her fiance wouldn't find out that she had gone to see an ex-boyfriend that she was still friends with. The rest of the men don't match the DNA found at the parkade. Charlie calls with a new location after using the new data in his equation. All it does is narrow down the hot zone to 20 of the 50 men already cleared. Angry, Charlie starts in a new equation. Amita tries to get him to take a break and he brushes her off. AD Merrick kicks Don off of the case. He goes to hand it off to a different lead agent. Charlie goes to Larry for advice. He tells Charlie that he's being too elegant with his math. Maybe he should make it messier due to the human factor at play. Back at the chalkboard, Charlie continues working. The school teacher from earlier leaves an event and goes to her car, alone. She is attacked by somebody that was hiding in the backseat of her car. Back at the Eppes house Charlie and Don talk about the case. Don tells him that they can't work on it anymore because he's off the case. Alan suggests that maybe the math isn't the problem, maybe it's something else. Don says that the focus could be off. They should focus on another hot zone, his potential work place. They run the equation again and come up with two areas: a smaller area of the original zone and an industrial area. They narrow down the suspect pool to 8 men. They land on Roland Haldane who works in the industrial hot zone and head out. Don and David go to talk to Haldane while Terry goes around the back to check things out. He tells them that he has a catering business on the side and that the mini blowtorch he has is for creme brulee, but knows he's been made when Don sees the symbol on the bottom of a knife that matches the burn marks on the victims and uses David as a human shield. Terry sees the teacher through a window in the back of the building. She breaks the window and the noise of the break distracts Haldane long enough for David to loosen the hold he has on him and Don shoots Haldane. Terry finds that the teacher with a plastic bag over her head, but she is still alive. She calls 911. Charlie comes to the most recent crime scene so Don can show Charlie the parking permit on Haldane's van. He moved out of Silver Lake three weeks previous. Credits appears on the beginning of the episode 06:00 Time, 594-E4 Map Grid, 772-04 Case #, 1st murder Quotes 'Everything is numbers' - Charlie Eppes Trivia Goofs While showing the nurse's house from a distance you can clearly see the house has bars on the windows and doors. Yet they enter the house through a window and no bars are present in the shot.